NASA’s Chandra spots fastest-growing black hole in early universe

Astronomers have spotted one of the fastest-growing black holes ever recorded, raising fresh questions about how such giants emerged so soon after the Big Bang.

What makes this black hole so unusual?
The black hole, named RACS J0320-35, is about a billion times heavier than the Sun. It lies 12.8 billion light years from Earth, meaning we see it as it was just 920 million years after the universe began. Observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show it producing more X-rays than any other black hole spotted in the universe’s first billion years.

This activity reveals that the black hole is growing at a rate above the normal threshold. That limit, called the Eddington limit, describes the maximum rate at which material can fall in without being pushed back by radiation pressure.

How are scientists explaining the rapid growth?
The black hole powers a quasar, a blazing object brighter than whole galaxies. Matter is funnelling into it faster than expected, possibly at 2.4 times the Eddington limit. Researchers say this suggests it may not need an unusually massive birth to reach its current size. Instead, it could have started with a smaller mass, less than a hundred Suns, from the collapse of a star.